Great cities foster human relationships and social inclusion. The Human Cities Initiative brings a whole systems approach to the research and practice of sustainable cities. We identify urbanization challenges at different stages of development and support technological, policy, and design strategies that address those challenges. We develop and practice ethical approaches using frameworks that are inclusive (for many) and participatory (by many) to benefit diverse communities.
Photo by Stanford University
Welcome to your tribe. Our goal is to create a platform to share best practices, theoretical frameworks, and practical strategies to advance human-centered approaches to sustainability. We nurture an interdisciplinary community of faculty, students, and community stakeholders based in mutual reciprocity and humility. We aim to embody an ethic of creativity, social commitment, and intention in the pursuit of research and real world applications.
We work with a network of partners to tackle urban sustainability issues around the world.
The Human Cities Initiative focuses on three core areas. Thought Leadership
Interdisciplinary Curriculum
Community of Practice
Cities around the world are experimenting with new approaches to urbanization. To support these efforts, scholars can adapt global concepts for specific local contexts. We collect case studies of cities from different regions and consider how municipalities can successfully tackle sustainable development through the four pillars of sustainability: environmental protection, economic vitality, social equity, and cultural continuity. We synthesize innovative ideas and publish original scholarship in collaboration with diverse stakeholders to advance new ways to identify, measure, and evaluate a human-centered approach to urban sustainability.
We aim to educate and inspire the next generation of urbanists, planners, designers, and engineers through experiential learning and active engagement inside and outside the classroom. Our curriculum is intended to cultivate an ethic of environmental stewardship and social responsibility in how we approach the development of cities. In these classes, faculty draw from different disciplines to approach and solve urban issues. Course opportunities are open to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as interested members of the Stanford community from diverse academic and professional disciplines.
Institutions of higher education can reinvigorate their engagement with cities. The Human Cities Initiative serves as a platform to encourage dialogue between industry, governments, research institutes, and community members. Through this research network, students and faculty can be matched with one another and with opportunities to collaborate on projects that advance a humanistic approach to the development of cities. This work will be done in consultation with community partners to build local capacity and adaptation of these ideas. Our measure of success is determined by a sense of ownership and genuine participation from all members of the partnership, and empirical evidence that a community is improved as a result of this interaction.
Stanford students travel to Beijing to participate in the joint Stanford-Tsinghua University “Approaching the Human City� Workshop in September 2015.
Innovative Curriculum: We adapt urban planning and design methods to enable students to use the city as a living urban laboratory for experiential learning.
Three E’s of Fieldwork: Experiential, Empathic and Ethical. We encourage students to learn by being on the ground, seeing the world from someone else’s point of view, and conducting research in a way that respects local context.
Collaborative Research Network Bringing people together from multiple sectors and disciplines
D
esigning and building human cities requires the cultivation of new ideas and approaches—and no one discipline can do this alone. We aim to build a collaborative community of practice to tackle this work. We connect people to collaborators based on their interests and serve as a hub for a network of practitioners and scholars working on urban issues in the broader Stanford community. We make the walls between the academy and the real world more permeable through cross-cultural collaboration, research exchange, and fellowship opportunities. By creating stronger linkages across government, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector and within the academy, we nurture collaborations that spark innovative thinking and practical ideas that will work. We also fund students to partake in research and fellowship opportunities within our collaborative network, inspiring the next generation of scholars and social innovators.
A
ctivities: Human Cities Urban Innovation Challenge (partners: Stanford Professionals in Real Estate and Counselors of Real Estate); International Urbanization Seminar (partners: Tsinghua University, ESSEC, Clean Air Asia, China Sustainable Transportation Center, Intel China/ Cinnovate); United Nations Human Settlements Programme UNI Network; Urban Summer Fellowship Community of Practice (partner: Stanford Haas Center for Public Service).
Stanford and Tsinghua students meet with the Beijing Tsinghua Tongcheng Urban Planning & Design Institute to discuss the Beijing Olympic Park.
Advancing Curriculum for the 21st-Century Mindset
W
e develop new teaching methods and curriculum that prepare students to tackle the greatest challenges facing cities today. Our teaching methods draw from engineering, social sciences, and design thinking with a focus on experiential, empathetic, and ethical fieldwork. We partner with faculty to develop project-based, experiential learning courses that use blended classroom techniques involving remote collaboration and online platforms. Students interested in cities can guide their study through the Human Cities course clusters on topics of smart cities, public interest design, urban mobility,
and equitable sustainable development. Courses are open to undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplinary backgrounds.
A
ctivities: For-credit courses offered through the Program on Urban Studies, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Systems Program, and the d.school such as Sustainable Cities, International Urbanization Seminar, Civic Dreams & Human Spaces, and Defining Smart Cities; noncredit pop-up workshops and trainings throughout the year.
Students learn inside and outside the classroom by engaging directly with urban environments.
Cultivating Thought Leadership Creating a platform to share best practices, theoretical frameworks, and practical strategies to advance humancentered approaches to sustainability.
C
ities today have more opportunities than ever to share information, and they have more tools at their disposal to test and put these ideas quickly in practice. As cities around the world pilot innovative approaches, we seek to capture these experiences by documenting best practices and creating a set of guidelines for what a human city looks like in measurable terms. We believe that many practitioners and policy makers would like to promote a more human-friendly city and seek the tools and strategies for doing so. At the
Human Cities Initiative, we leverage the community at Stanford to highlight current debates in 21st-century urbanism and develop frameworks for thinking globally while respecting local context.
A
ctivities: Defining Smart Cities podcast highlighting how practitioners define and implement a smart city in their work; annual Human Cities Expo at Stanford University featuring exhibits, student collaborations, and lightning chat speakers; and hosting Human Cities events around the world.
Towards the future city The Human Cities Initiative brings the focus of urban development back to people and communities. But how do we tackle this sort of challenge when cities are multifaceted and complicated? How do we find solutions when a solution that works for one place may not work for other contexts? This is where you come in. We can tackle urban problems through interdisciplinary collaboration. Join us if you are excited about cities and care about shaping our collective future. We are a collaborative platform for those who see alternative pathways to urban development. If you want to imagine the future differently, you are in the right place.
Human Cities is your Home. Maybe you have an interest in cities, but aren’t sure yet how to engage. We find a project that motivates you, and we will give you the tools to ethically explore cities and communities. Alternatively, you might be someone who knows clearly what you want to do, but you are looking for collaborators who have similar interests and complementary skills. We will help you find each other! Or maybe you’re just someone who is intrigued by cities and wants some inspiration to take back to your own project. We’re happy that you’re here too.
HUMAN CITIES INITIATIVE © 2016 STANFORD UNIVERSITY HUMANCITIES.STANFORD.EDU